A New Era
by ZaraTsubasa
Summary: In the years of the 31st century's Golden Age, many of our beloved heroes retired, settling down to raise families. Their children are the heirs to the Legion, but when the responsibility falls on them too soon, it's up to the Legionnaires we know and love to set things right. Set mid season 2. LL/SG; Duo/BB; PG/TW; B5/SV
1. The Fall of the Next Legion

**Title: **A New Era

**Pairings:** PG/TW, Duo Damsel/BB, SG/LL, SV/B5, and a few Oc pairings among the kids

**Summary:** In the years of the 31st century's Golden Age, many of our beloved heroes retired, settling down to raise families. Their children are the heirs to the Legion, but when the responsibility falls on them too soon, it's up to the Legionnaires we know and love to set things right. Set mid season 2.

**Rating: **T

**Warnings: **violence, injury, mentions of character death; it has its happy moments I swear. I honestly don't even think it warrants a "warning" because it's 2014 and homophobic people are a waste of my time, but among the Ocs there's a gay pairing and a lesbian pairing in this story. You have been told.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Legion of Superheroes or any of its characters or properties

* * *

Legion Headquarters, 3035 A.C.

Thick black smoke mixed with the darkening storm clouds above the city of New Metropolis, a telling sign of the tension stirring in the battle going on below. Four armed super villains sought vengeance against their hated enemies in the Legion, and four budding heroes had stood up to defend their home. It was in no way an even match despite the numbers, and the young Legionnaires were each struggling just to hold their own.

"Sphere Lass, incoming!" a voice yelled from somewhere behind the only female on the front lines. The multicolor haired girl turned her head slightly, not taking her attention off the ax-wielding assailant in front of her until the black and blue blur of a Kryptonian boy sped by, sweeping her off her feet and out of the way as the green blasts of energy Emerald Empress had been directing at them just missed and hit Persuader instead.

"Thanks for the save, X!" Sphere Lass called to her friend over the wind, one hand holding her pair of white goggles on her head as the boy grinned at her over the top edge of his shades.

"No prob, SL, and that's _Superboy_ X to you!" X answered. He set her down just as quickly as he'd picked her up, flying back in the direction of the Empress with his heat vision fighting the Eye of Ekron at full blast.

Sphere Lass glanced down at the flight ring on her finger and took to the air as well, taking the opportunity of Persuader being down momentarily to gauge the situation better from above. She watched her teammates closely, a dozen strategies being formed and revised in her head. Superboy X and Empress seemed to be rather evenly matched, but Sphere Lass couldn't as easily read the situations of her other two friends. Storm Reader was shooting lightning bolts down at Mano while he in turn tried to grab at the boy, the pair playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse across the field. Meanwhile, she'd completely lost sight of Atom Boy, but the enraged look on Tharok's face and the way he kept grabbing at his robotic half was a pretty good indicator to where he was.

"Tama! Do you really expect me to just twiddle my thumbs up here when you almost just got hit?" an angry static filled voice called out suddenly from Sphere Lass's communicator. The super heroine rolled her eyes at the use of her real first name, flying out of the way of a stray green blast before she answered.

"I'm sorry, Winny, but now's not the time for you to be having problems with the way I run things! I was put in charge when the senior Legionnaires left and I say you and Gwen aren't fit to be back in the field yet, it's too much of a risk!"

"What makes you think we can win this fight when half your team is holed up in command with Computo 2.0 guarding us? We can help, Tama, Liam's been begging me!"

"Forget it! You and Gwen are unstable and Liam and Ren are too young, the four of us out here have got it cov-"

Tama was cut off mid sentence as too late she realized her mistake; in all the chaos of arguing with Winema, she'd turned her back on Persuader. The villain's axe flew through the air, and Sphere Lass just managed to avoid getting her head chopped off before it exploded behind her, knocking her from the air. The heroine tumbled to the ground, morphing into a ball shape to cushion her fall. She bounced once weakly, then collapsed back into her normal shape.

It took a matter of minutes for Sphere Lass to watch her team fall apart. Superboy fell first as Persuader intervened in his battle with the Empress. He tried the same trick on X as he had with Sphere Lass, and when the Kryptonian dodged the Eye of Ekron was waiting there to catch him off guard. The older boy fell to the ground with a thud, his eyes glowing an unnatural green behind his dark glasses.

Sphere Lass struggled to get to her feet, her arms and legs feeling weak and her back of her dress singed from the blast, but she still tried for the others' sake. A few feet away, Storm Reader was trying to disengage from his fight with Mano without success until Tharok unwillingly blasted Mano, a happy accident thanks to Atom Boy's tampering. His cybernetic side sparked and popped, and after another moment there was a bang, and an unconscious miniature Atom Boy was painfully ejected from the cyborg's body. Storm Reader caught him and flew back towards Sphere Lass, grabbing the back of Superboy's jacket as he went and landing on his knees beside her with one hand cupped around their tiny fallen friend.

"We're not even holding our own here, Spheres, I think a retreat is an order." the strawberry blonde said sternly, his good blue eye stormy as he looked up to see the Fatal Four approaching them slowly. Tama got to her knees stiffly, taking Atom Boy from the other boy and when he passed him to her and slipping his unconscious form into an inner pocket of her dress so that he'd be safe. She watched as the scar over Storm Reader's left eye charged up, then he leaped into the air and blasted at the villains with electricity to keep them at bay.

"Go, Sphere Lass!" he called over his shoulder. He shot again, but Tharok seemed to have recovered from Atom Boy's tampering and easily absorbed the energy. One hit to the head with the blunt side of Persuader's ax and a powerful blast from the Empress's Eye later, Storm Reader fell to the ground beside his friend X.

Hopelessness spread through the last Legionnaire standing as she found herself surrounded, her fallen comrades at her feet and hateful faces on all sides. She looked up to see the Eye of Ekron charging up one last blast as the Empress smirked at her victoriously.

"End if the line, little Legionnaire. You tried, I'll give you that, but there's no point avoiding the inevitable any more." the Emerald Empress said with crossed arms and a cold smile. Sphere Lass closed her eyes, the fight gone from her as she just waited for it to be over, but the blast never came. A guttural, primal growl erupted from the air behind her, and the heroine's violet eyes snapped open as she turned around just in time to see the beastly form of Winema "Ghost Wolf" Londo shooting past her and straight at the Fatal Four.

Sphere Lass's heart crawled into her throat as she watched her monstrous comrade barrel straight into the Empress and swat the Emerald Eye to the side with a giant paw, those familiar golden eyes burning with rage and hatred. Reluctantly Tama tore her eyes away, her eyes searching for the others. There was no sign of Winny's sister Gwen, but she could easily have been invisible, and the Legion leader's heart sank when she saw her little brother and Ren flying toward her.

"Li- Triplet Lad! Durlan Damsel! Get out of here, now!" Sphere Lass yelled, panic and adrenaline flooding her systems and renewing her will to fight. She took a running start and leaped at Persuader and Mano, bowling them over in ball form to keep them away from the kids. They were only twelve and eleven, so in Tama's mind the battlefield was no place for them yet, and she'd fight with everything she had to protect them.

The only problem, of course, was that the kids really didn't want to be protected. They teamed up on Tharok together, Durlan Damsel transforming into a crab like creature Sphere Lass was sure she'd seen the girl's father turn into before while Triplet Lad split into three. The black and white costumed selves of the half Carggite boy attacking first followed by his blue self, each one kicking the cyborg in the chest while Ren flew in to finish the job in crab form. If the two young heroes weren't so outmatched it would have worked too, but Tharok was too intelligent to be beaten by a pair of kids. The cyborg's arm reached out, grabbing one of Durlan Damsel's antennae and attempting to crush it. The young girl reverted back to her humanoid form instantly, screaming in pain until Tharok let go and shoved her away.

_"Get out of there, Ren!"_ Tama screeched as the mouth of Tharok's canon pressed against the side of the terrified girl's head, ready to fire. Sphere Lass shot forward, speeding at the cyborg and registering Ghost Wolf doing the same somewhere to her right, but neither of them got there before Triplet Lad. The black Liam used his whole body to shove the canon out of the way while the blue wrapped both arms around it to hold it out of range from the others until the white Liam could scoop up Durlan Damsel and fly away as fast as he could.

Sphere Lass had almost gotten to the group when Tharok regained control of the situation, punching Triplet Lad's black self in the gut and kicking him away before shaking off the blue self. Before anyone on the battlefield could react or even blink, Tharok had turned and blasted the blue Liam point blank. The boy never even had the chance to scream as he went flying, his body going limp as the canon hit him at full blast. Liam's blue self was dead before he'd even hit the ground.

Tama saw red, and all she could remember after that through the surge of rage and grief was Liam's two remaining selves screaming while she slammed into Tharok with every ounce of strength she had.


	2. Journey to the Past

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Legion of Superheroes or any of its characters or properties

* * *

Two weeks later and 30 years back

"-ama..? Tama, wake up!"

The Legion leader startled awake, staring a bit wide eyed back at the small Durlan girl who had roused her. The bigger girl pushed herself up into a sitting position slowly as she momentarily failed to recognize her surroundings. That was when she remembered that she wasn't at Legion HQ any more, or at least not the one she was familiar with. She and three of her teammates were in a small sheltered area of a park, a little under a mile away from the Legion Headquarters of 3008 A.C., the new time period they'd traveled to. Tama had been so exhausted after the time bubble trip to the past that she'd passed out and let Clark take first watch. Whether he was Atom Boy or his civilian alias, the younger Legionnaire was always tirelessly vigilant, and when she saw the dark bags under his green eyes that morning Tama wondered if he'd stayed at his post all night putting that twelfth level intelligence of his to work.

"Don't tell me you were all waiting on me," Tama said as she stood up slowly and stretched, her abnormally flexible joints popping in protest. Apollo smiled from where he was leaning on a tree, rubbing the scar on his eye absently as if it were bothering him.

"What else is there to wait for? We've all learned to accept that our Fearless Leader sleeps like the dead, T," he teased, and Tama playfully punched his shoulder. In the back of her head she noticed that he seemed more than a little preoccupied, and it wasn't hard for her to assume that he'd probably spent the night fitfully, no doubt worrying about how Gwen was doing back home without him to help her through her nightmares.

"Sorry to have woken you up," Ren said with a worried look as Tama came to check on her next. "It just looked like you were having a bad dream."

The older girl smiled and shook her head, ruffling the shapeshifter's long brown hair and messing it up. The younger girl made a noise of surprise and annoyance about it before Tama laughed and hugged her. "Don't worry about it, Renny, I'm grateful! I don't remember much, but I think that's what it was, too."

Ren huffed and smiled a little up at Tama, undoing her long braid so that she could comb her fingers through the brown locks and dark green highlights. It took her several moments before she managed to fix it back in its style, readjusting the mirwan blossom behind her ear. "Now that you're awake, does that mean we can finally meet the past Legion?" the little girl finally asked, her patience obviously running thin.

"Now would be the time," Tama agreed absently, turning to their resident genius for confirmation. Clark looked up when he felt her eyes on him, stopping work on whatever it was he was tinkering to run a hand through his black and blonde streaked hair with a sigh.

"It wouldn't be a wise decision to go storming in there, I mean the best we could say is 'Surprise! We're your children from the future and we need your help!'." the pale green skinned boy said with a frown, patting his hair back down to partially hide the symbol of Brainiac on his forehead behind his bangs again.

"Well, we ___could _say that," Apollo countered with a wry grin, and Clark paused to glare at him.

"The best way to gain our future parents' assistance with minimal distortion of the timeline," the boy continued while ignoring Apollo's contribution, "would be to go in disguise and gain their trust. Once we've done that, we could bring them with us to our own time period and tell them the truth."

"Do you really think that would work?" Ren asked timidly, and Tama couldn't blame her for being nervous when she was about to meet a teenage version of her beloved father.

"It's the best plan we can execute on such short notice. I took the liberty of generating our disguises while the rest of you slept." Clark replied calmly. He reached into one of the pouches on his belt and retrieved four small circular chips, passing one out to each of the assembled Legionnaires.

Tama sighed as she stared down at her chip with a small frown, shaking her head before she pulled one of her long white gloves down to her wrist to place the chip on her bare skin. The transformation was quick and painless as the chip sank in, amounting to nothing more than a tingling sensation as the biological illusion set in. After a long deep breath, Tama opened her eyes and looked down, relieved that her disguise wasn't too bad. Her short black bob with the white, orange and purple streaks in it was replaced by ginger curls, and her purple eyes had become a vivid green with a constellation of freckles like Apollo's across the bridge of her nose. She was relieved to see that no alterations had been made to her body type to make her look thinner; she was still the curvy, big boned girl she liked being, and the green and silver jumpsuit she wore complimented this well.

Satisfied with Clark's work, Tama looked up to see how the others had fared. Ren's long hair was free to flow over her shoulders in a platinum blonde waterfall, her eyes stormy grey now as she looked down at her silvery dress and cloak with interest. Her natural orange skin tone was paled to a dull cream, but the antennae that aided her powers remained. Apollo had gotten a digital haircut, and he seemed so preoccupied with hating it that he didn't even notice his new suit was black and dark pink. He kept tugging at the short dark brown locks with obvious irritation in his newly colored brown eye; nothing had been done about the scar over his other eye, which came as a surprise to Tama. The last to disguise himself was Clark, and his transformation was the most drastic by far. His green skin had faded to a dull tan, the Coluan symbol on his forehead nothing but a faint outline now beneath the bangs of the dirty blonde hair he'd tied back in a ponytail. Clark's usual purple and green-black suit had been replaced by one that was varying shades of blue to match his new eye color.

Tama let out a low whistle, smiling at her comrade gratefully as she took in their new looks. "Very impressive work, Clark," she said appreciatively, and the boy spared her a small smile back.

"Thank you. There were a few details that I couldn't afford to try and alter with such limited time, but I tried to make them as inconspicuous as possible. Ren's antennae should blend with the rest of her appearance now, and I'm afraid Apollo will have to attempt to explain away his scar when asked.." Clark trailed off, glancing at Apollo hesitantly and clearing his throat. "Anyway, that only leaves the issue of our powers."

Tama bit her lip, running a hand through her new ginger hair as she glanced at her comrades. There it was, the kicker; each of the Legionnaires on her team had inherited their powers in some way from their parents, which would make it that much harder for them to use those powers in front of the past Legionnaires without suspicion arising.

"I think Ren and Apollo can get by with just using certain aspects of their powers. Apollo, you can use your empathic abilities and telekinetic blasts if need be. And um, if it's not too much trouble, could you..?" Tama trailed off uncertainly, but Apollo spared her the trouble by rolling his eyes and finishing the sentence.

"Physically shield us all from my mom? Fine, but you owe me later for all the headaches it'll give me." he said with an irritated sigh, and Tama smiled a little.

"Jupiter Burgers and shakes?" she asked.

"As many as you can buy me." he answered affirmatively.

Tama nodded with a smile, turning to Ren next. "Ren, your dad was teaching you how to just morph certain parts of your body before he left, wasn't he?" At the girl's tentative nod, she kept going. "Do you think you could use this next week or so to practice that? The Legion might get suspicious if they know you're a shapeshifter, but I think that if we set limits on that power, it'll keep them from realizing you're from Durla."

Ren bit her lip before her young face set in a determined scowl and she nodded, clearly set on doing as Tama told her. The leading Legionnaire breathed a sigh of relief before she turned to Clark grimly, pulling him aside so that the others could practice and rest up while they worked out a plan. Their powers weren't as multifaceted as Apollo's or Ren's, they were near genetic copies from one parent or the other, and Tama could tell that they both knew using their true powers would mean instant suspicion.

"We're going to have to cheat on this, aren't we?" Tama said with a long sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose. She didn't have to open her eyes to know that Clark was nodding and she breathed deeply again. "Okay. So what rules of the Legion Code are we going to be breaking today?"

"The rules about not accepting members whose powers are solely technological.. and the rule about not accepting members with no powers." Clark replied immediately, pulling a pair of green gloves with a sliver of silver crystal aligned against each knuckle out of one of the pouches around his waist and handing them to Tama, momentarily ignoring the confusion on her face.

"Okay, Clarky, I'll bite. What is it you're planning?" she asked suspiciously, pulling the gloves on and biting her lip as she felt them hum with power. The boy across from her glared at the nickname that X had originally given him, then proceeded to ignore that, too.

"I made those power gloves specifically for you, Tama. They're wired so that they will respond to your exact biochemistry to create energy charges and utilize limited amounts of telekinetic power in response to your thoughts and emotions in a fight. They way I calibrated them, they'll be so in sync with your body's functions that ideally, my father and the rest of the Legion will believe these powers are your own and not the work of the gloves." Clark explained seriously, and the levels of both caution and recklessness in his approach made Tama even more nervous than she already was.

"What about you? Are you really going to waltz in there and claim that you don't have any powers?" she asked anxiously, wishing desperately that she could have a fraction of the twelfth level intellect he had to help her keep up.

"I'm afraid I'll have to. I didn't have time to make any kind of replica to those gloves, and if I just use my regular powers then the Legion will surely know I'm half Imskan.. I'm afraid I'll just have to improvise." Clark said with a shrug, rubbing the back of his neck as he glanced in the direction Legion HQ would be in.

"And what makes you so sure they won't just reject you at the door?" Tama asked anxiously, trying her best to have faith in her friend's plan, but Clark gave her another passive shrug in response.

"They let Karate Kid in after he proved himself to them. I suppose I'll just have to do the same." he replied, and Tama nodded before she turned to rejoin their other two teammates. Apollo was grimacing a bit, no doubt beginning to extend his telepathic powers over the four of them. A moment later his expression cleared and he nodded to her, signaling that they'd be safe from his mother's telepathic probes.

"Is it time?" Ren asked excitedly, bouncing up to Tama and taking her hand.

"It's time," she confirmed, cradling the flight ring she'd taken off in her palm, "Hand your rings over to Clark for safekeeping, guys. If we're lucky, we'll be getting new ones before the day's over."

The younger boy looked on seriously as he took the three flight rings, removing his own before placing the four in a pocket of a pouch on his waist. "Time to go then," he said confidently, and without another word the four heroes walked out of the park. It wasn't very long before golden majesty of the past headquarters rose up in the distance, and Apollo let out a low whistle as they approached.

"It looks like we came at the perfect time," he noted as he pointed to the huge mass of people already lined up in front of the building. Clark nodded, blowing a long lock of hair out of his eyes before he squinted at the line.

"Legion auditions." he muttered.


	3. Long Live the Legion

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Legion of Superheroes or any of its characters or properties

**Author's note: **Fun fact, all of the kids' assumed first names for the Legion auditions are nods to the canon Legion of Superheroes comics in some way, as a matter of fact so are some of the kids' normal code names like Atom Boy and Gwen's code name Phase (because I have no life and read Losh character pages on Wikipedia all the time). Apollo's was especially fun because Graym is the name of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl's son in the Silver Age comics

* * *

"Thank you, Invisible Girl, that'll be all." Cosmic Boy said politely to a young girl as she walked out of the Headquarters, momentarily flickering out of visibility a few times since her power was invisibility so long as nobody was looking. She didn't seem too happy with the results of her audition, shoving past Apollo where he stood at the head of the line and continuing on.

"Next!" a voice called from inside, and with a deep breath the future Legionnaire walked in without looking back.

Apollo had never seen much of the audition room as a kid since he'd always had a sure spot in the Legion, but he had to admit it was impressive. It was a bit messed up, with a puddle of purple slime off to the side a scorch marks on some of the back walls, but Apollo had to stop and collect his thoughts when he saw the panel of Legionnaires looking at him expectantly from above. There was Cosmic Boy in the center with Superman X and Brainiac 5 to his right, there was his mother Saturn Girl sitting there with a polite smile and a rather irritated looking Lightning Lad next to her. There was Ren's father Chameleon Boy saying something that was apparently pretty funny to Shrinking Violet, and was that Triplicate Girl next to them? To the left of them was Timber Wolf and Phantom Girl, but Apollo tried not to look at her for too long. She had Gwen's eyes. He noticed that a few Legionnaires were conspicuously missing, but he figured they must have been on missions of their own.

He was so busy studying them all that it took Apollo several minutes to realize that Cosmic Boy was talking to him. "Um.. what?" he asked nervously, and a few Legionnaires snickered or sighed as Cosmic Boy repeated himself.

"I thanked you for auditioning and asked you what your name was," the unofficial leader of the Legion said patiently, and Apollo nodded, trying to swallow as he felt how dry his throat was.

"Ah, 'm Graym Krios, but I'm going to be going by Empath if I get in." Apollo said as he straightened his shoulders and tried to channel his father's confidence. He smiled up at the panel, but by accident he caught Phantom Girl's eye and looked away quickly as he kept talking. "'m pretty sure the name says it all, but I can sense other peoples' emotions and project what causes them."

Apollo bit his lip as he saw Saturn Girl tilt her head curiously, clearly curious about his powers. "Those are Titanian abilities.. are you from there, Graym?"

The blonde-turned-brunette swallowed hard, trying not to seem as nervous as he was. He'd heard once that every good lie has a grain of truth to it, so that's what he decided to do. "My mother was from Titan." he said simply, and leaving no more room for discussion, he began to demonstrate his powers. Apollo's eyes flashed dark red as he dove into each of the Legionnaires' minds, trying to find something that made each of them happy or sad or scared. He raised his arms above his head, mentally projecting the best things he could find as corporeal illusions.

His father's mind was the easiest to access, probably because working with Saturn Girl meant less mental safeguards if Apollo had to guess. The young telepath smirked as he stopped at a certain memory of a night spent on Quavermass 12 and projected what he saw. Lightning Lad jumped in his seat with a surprised yelp before he glared down at his disguised future son, clearly not appreciating the illusion even though many of the other Legionnaires like Chameleon Boy and Cosmic Boy seemed to be. Apollo gave the Winathian man a sheepish smile and switched tactics. Chameleon Boy was another easy mind to infiltrate, and the next image he created was one of Durla, manipulating the room around him until it looked like a portion of the planet was contained within the room. The shape shifting boy above him leaned forward in delight, awed by the trick.

"That's amazing, it looks just like home! You really got that from my head?" Cham asked, and with a cocky smile Apollo nodded and moved on to his final act; infiltrating the mind of his future mother. Pink eyes widened in shock as Apollo pushed to access her thoughts, being gentle at first before slowly putting on pressure. She fought him, though whether it was to challenge him or keep him out of her thoughts he didn't know, and Apollo started to feel a stronger headache coming on as he felt his hold slipping. He made one last ditch effort to get in, fighting full on until with a startled noise from the female telepath Apollo found himself immersed in Saturn Girl's mind.

Apollo felt the girl's initial shock fading, and he quickly searched for the most recent strong memory he could find before she kicked him out of her mind. Without even stopping to see what it was, the boy raised a hand and projected it, surprised to see the translucent face of Lightning Lad appearing.

"Oh thank sprock, you're awake.. I was starting to worry that healing trance would be your last," Lightning Lad in the memory was saying, and the relief and tenderness on his face seemed to surprise not just Apollo, but most of the Legionnaires there. "How are you feeling?"

Saturn Girl's answer from the memory couldn't be heard, but after a moment the projected Lightning Lad nodded, his shoulders relaxing as the tension leaked out of him. "Good to hear, I'll let the staff know you're up and see about getting you something to eat." Apollo smiled at the nurse-like attitude that took over Lightning Lad, remembering that his father had acted the same way when he'd nursed him back to health after the accident where he'd gotten the scar over his eye.

For a second, the memory seemed to have ended, but Lightning Lad turned back to look at the spot where an imaginary Saturn Girl must have been, hesitating for a minute before he spoke. "... It's good to have you back, Imra. I.. I missed you."

The transparent Lightning Lad faded away and Apollo lowered his arms, looking around at the panel. Most of them seemed to be somewhere between satisfied with the display and surprised by the last projection, with the exception of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad. Saturn Girl was blushing slightly with her eyes trained on the table in front of her, her fingers rubbing her temples at the slight headache Apollo's intrusion must have caused. Lightning Lad, on the other hand, was completely mortified. The man had sunk so low in his chair that only the top of his head was visible, but his forehead and the tops of his ears were an obvious bright red. A few of the other Legionnaires were staring at him, but after a moment of awkward silence, Cosmic Boy finally cleared his throat.

"I think that'll be all, Empath, thank you. We'll be getting back to you." he said with a nod, and with a small salute Apollo turned to head out the door. He heard someone yell "Next!" from behind him and grinned at Ren as she raced past him. The older boy gave her a high five as she passed, wishing the kid the best of luck.

The auditions went a lot more quickly for Ren and Tama, who introduced themselves as Ji Mirwan and Una Argo respectively. "Ji", or Shifter as she decided for her code name, was in and out of the audition area in 15 minutes, and it took "Kinesis Lass" even less time. She waltzed out of auditions looking confident as could be, but as soon as the doors shut behind her, her face fell.

"How'd you do, T?" Apollo came up and asked Tama as she rejoined the group, but she just looked up at him with troubled eyes.

"I'm fine, I just.. I don't think my mom is." the older girl said uncertainly. Apollo bit his lip, remembering how something had seemed off about the past Triplicate Girl.

"Her costume looked a lot like it does now.." he ventured hesitantly. "But am I wrong, or wasn't the third color on her uniform supposed to be white?"

Tama nodded silently, clearly disturbed as he could see the conflict behind her eyes without bothering to sense her emotional state. He ventured to ask the dreaded question, deciding he had to try even if he knew she'd shut down on him.

"You.. you don't think she_ lost_ one of her bodies, do you..? ... Like Liam?"

The look on their leader's darkened and just as Apollo had expected, she hid her face and turned away. The disguised redhead sat down heavily on a spot on the curbside where a bunch of other finished applicants were sitting, her expression unreadable.

"You ought to go tell Clark he's up next." Tama said impassively, and she refused to say any more.

* * *

"The newest members of the Legion of Superheroes are..." Cosmic Boy was intoning over the microphone a few hours later. It had felt like an eternity of waiting for the four time travelers to sit and do nothing while the other applicants were called in, but the moment of truth was finally here. Tama wrapped her arms comfortingly around Ren to keep her from having a nervous breakdown, and Clark had his arms crossed and the same inscrutable look on his face that he'd been wearing since he'd stalked out of the auditions room as the handful of names were read out.

"Shadow Lass, Shifter, Chemical Kid, Empath and Kinesis Lass."

The four children of the Legion turned to look at one another knowingly as the noise level of the crowd picked up and many a disappointed face passed by them. With Legion auditions behind them, the kids were that much closer to getting the aid they needed from the heroes of the past, and maybe even closer to learning the fate of their parents in the future. But there was one small problem that needed resolved, and Tama glanced expectantly at Clark for his input.

"So I didn't get in. I _did_ tell them in a straightforward manner that I had no powers. It was only logical for them to dismiss me." the short boy said with concealed disappointment in his voice, his twelfth level intellect clearly hard at work, "I'll see if I can't find another way to infiltrate the Legion, or if I can't then I could make myself useful by coordinating the effort from the outside."

The half Coluan boy quickly shooed the three away to be sworn in on the platform in front of headquarters, and he was just turning to leave with the rest of the rejected would-be Legionnaires when a small hand landed on his shoulder. Clark turned, but he stopped and stared with wide eyes back into a pair of purple eyes that he'd known all his young life.

"Um, can I help you, Miss Violet?" Clark asked his future mother uncertainly, and the pale Imskan girl snorted at the title.

"Please, that's Shrinking Violet to you, and I think you can." The Legionnaire said. With her at this age, the two size shifters were almost the same height, but Salu had about an inch on Clark thanks to her high heels. "You said during your audition that there were flaws in the Legion's strategies, that you could help us improve. I want to take you up on that, see if you can't do us some good."

The boy's head tilted as he watched her, his eyes curious though his face gave nothing away. "I _did _say I didn't have any powers, Miss Violet." He reminded her.

"I know, we're not inducting you into the Legion or anything right now. Just think of this as something like a field test." Shrinking Violet said with a mischievous smile. Clark stared at her for a moment, mentally weighing his options before he nodded slowly.

"I'm in." He said with a nonchalant shrug. Violet grinned, motioning for him to follow her into Headquarters. "It's Vril, right?" she asked curiously, and with a little smile he nodded. "Yes, and you're Salu."

On the steps, Clark's comrades were being sworn into the Legion for their second time. One step closer to the past Legion, and one step closer to their goal.

"To the Legion of Superheroes, I make this solemn pledge: to use my powers for good, to fight for justice, and to protect the innocent. To aid my fellow Legionnaires in times of peril, and to keep their secrets safe. I am-"

"Shifter!"

"Empath!"

"Kinesis Lass!"

Clark looked at his friends' proud faces as he walked past, turning away and smiling to himself as he mumbled his assumed code name under his breath.

"Virus."


	4. Untold Burdens

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Legion of Superheroes or any of its characters or properties

**Author's Note:** Sorry it took me a lot longer to update this time around- I'm not completely back into the swing of things with school, and I was also straightening out a lot of plot points for this story. This pause in updating might happen a few times since my school work comes first, but I'm not about to purposely neglect this story.

In light of this story's first review (courtesy of the awesome Hadassa J, I highly recommend her stories), I noticed that this fic was indeed a little rushed at the beginning and that I may have jumped into the plot a little too quickly- in light of this, I'm going to be making some edits to the story as far as the chapters go. I'll be adding two new chapters preceding the time travel in order to help smooth out any pacing issues, so I wanted to let you guys know since those will be the next updates after this chapter.

* * *

Legion H.Q., 3035 A.C.

Bright moonlight spilled into the spacious kitchen of Legion Headquarters, lighting everything up so that the electrical lighting wasn't necessary for the girl using it. She flew back and forth gathering ingredients, using her flight ring for extra lighting when she needed to read the recipe before rolling up the sleeves of her pajamas and getting to work. Gwen knew full well that 2 in the morning was an odd time to be awake and alone in the kitchen, but cooking was one of the few things that helped center her. She felt as at home in the kitchen as her father always had, even if the thought of him made a frown tug down the corners of her mouth.

Her father, Timber Wolf.. yet another name on the long list of Legionnaires who were now missing in action after a failed mission on the planet Braal. Gwen hadn't been told the details of the mission at the time, and now she was afraid to find out. All she had known at the time was that the job was set to take seven months, and it had already been a year since the team had departed. For all she knew, both her parents and the rest of the Legion could be long gone.

The young heroine sighed and shook her head, shoving the sad thoughts from her mind forcefully as she pulled her long white hair back out of her face, pushing her thick glasses further up her nose while she reread the step she was on in the recipe. Gwen had just finished cooking and put a row of chocolate souffles into the large industrial oven when she heard the sound of walking feet and jumped. Ever since the ordeal two years ago when Apollo had been hurt, the already timid young girl had been more paranoid than ever. She lived in constant fear of being kidnapped or attacked when she was alone, so even the most subtle of noises could send her heart racing in terror.

The grey eyed girl backed up against the kitchen counter, staying as silent as possible as her ears strained to pick up any new sound. The footsteps had slowed, but they were only getting closer, causing Gwen to internally freak out more. She tried to become invisible or phase out of the room, to do anything useful, but just as they had been for two frustrating years now, Gwen's powers refused to work for her when she needed them. The young girl gave up, grabbing a frying pan from off the stove and attempting to hold it in a defensive position until her hands became intangible unexpectedly and the pan dropped out of her hands. The frying pan fell noisily to the floor, making Gwen cringe as she tried to will herself solid again when suddenly the lights flickered on, temporarily blinding her until she looked up to see a confused Kahn-El standing in the doorway with his arms crossed.

"Uum, Gwen?" he asked uncertainly. The girl looked down at her hands in embarrassment, finding that they were solid again and using the opportunity to scoop up the frying pan.

"Erm, h-hi Kane.." the half Bgztlian girl stuttered uncertainly, feeling foolish for being scared of her own teammate's footsteps. "D-Did you just come back f-from your rounds..?"

The Kryptonian boy nodded easily, striding forward to jump onto the counter and sit cross-legged on top of it as if it were the most normal thing in the world. He sat up eagerly and pushed his shades up to perch on his head, revealing dark blue eyes that locked onto the oven with a mischievous glint. "I don't know what you're doing up cooking in the middle of the night, Phase, but it smells ___amazing _in here." the young man said with his most convincing smile, making Gwen smile a little and roll her eyes.

"Y-You could just ask for one, X," she said as she peeked at the oven to gauge her creation's progress. "I-I made chocolate souffle, i-it should be ready by now."

Kane slid to the edge of the counter and slouched to peer into the oven as well. "If they're not, I could always do the honors; this heat vision is good for more than just frying the Emerald Eye."

"I'll k-keep that in mind," Gwen responded with another eye roll, amused by her comrade's carefree state of disregard. Kane had always been like this, ever since he'd arrived in the 31st century from 41st century Kandor a few months ago. He joked and teased, giving nicknames to the Legionnaires he liked most until it was time for battle and he turned into a reckless loose cannon. That was part of the reason he'd been sent to the past in the first place, so that he could learn from the Legion and be able to fight without getting himself hurt; sometimes Gwen thought bitterly of how lucky that made him.

Kane watched curiously as Gwen pulled the souffle out of the oven, eyeing the dessert and beaming when she passed him one with an oven mitt. The hungry hero dug into the chocolate treat immediately, making satisfied noises as he enjoyed it that made the cook smile again. The boy devoured three of the desserts before he even came up for air, taking the glass of water Gwen handed him and sucking it down greedily. He finally looked up at her when he was finished, studying the younger girl curiously.

"Your nightmares must be pretty bad for you to be down here all night, huh?" he finally asked in a casual tone, making Gwen flinch at the unexpected question. She turned away to clean the dirty dishes, and that was all the answer he needed.

"I guess they're pretty hard to stand without Apollo around, huh?" X pressed as he bit into his fourth miniature souffle, and the chocolate sauce dribbling down his chin as well as his unfaltering smile contrasted the seriousness in his eyes.

Again Gwen didn't answer, but this time she turned her head to look at him uncertainly over her shoulder. The boy took it as incentive to keep talking, anything to get her to open up; he'd arrived in this time period long after the accident that had caused her to withdraw, but Kane knew that Apollo couldn't be the only person she let in forever.

"Look, Gwen, everyone already knows how much he cares about you. He goes out of his way to make sure he can be there to comfort you when those night terrors scare you. Why do you think he takes naps in the middle of the day, or why I always take his nightly patrol shifts-?" he started, but Gwen turned around and cut him off.

"I never wanted to be a burden, Kane!" she snapped, and the boy held his hands up in surrender. She paused, her angry expression faltering as her shoulders sagged. "I-I'm sorry.."

"Hey, calm down. Nobody thinks you're a burden, Phase, least of all me or Sparky." Kane said adamantly as he slid forward to sit on the counter's edge with his legs hanging over the side. "He doesn't do all that out of pity. He does it because he wants to see you happy again."

Gwen seemed to digest this for a moment before turning back to her dishes regretfully. "Apollo has bigger things to worry about than my happiness now."

Kane opened his mouth to object when there was a scuffling sound from the hallway outside, and the two teens turned to see a young boy with raven black hair poking his head into the room. The boy looked around and walked in, gently pulling his timid white haired duplicate after him by the wrist.

"I told you I smelled something good," Black said to his white counterpart with a small smile. White glanced between Gwen and Kane nervously before his eyes landed on the souffle and they widened a bit before he nodded with more enthusiasm than he'd shown in a week. Gwen smiled despite herself at the sight, turning back to the cabinets and pulling out various pieces of equipment.

"Y-You boys can have as much as you like, b-but only after I've made a proper meal for you, o-okay?" she said, her tone confident despite the slight stutter. Soon the kitchen was alive with smell and sound as the sizzling of meat and vegetables frying mixed with the lull of idle chatter and Gwen swept around the room, doing what she did best. She was serving plates of an Earth cuisine called stir fry to each of the boys within a half hour, remembering that they loved Earth's culture as much as their father and sure enough, excited smiles lit up both of the Liams' faces as they dug in. The four teens talked casually after that, a calm falling over the kitchen despite the occasional falter as one teenager or another found themselves backpedaling to avoid certain sensitive topics.

"So," Kane said to Gwen later as they washed the last of the dishes, his voice low so that the Liams couldn't hear him, "what were you saying about being a burden?"

The younger girl frowned, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear as she looked up at him with a silent question in her eyes. Kane set down the plate he'd been holding to cross his arms and smile at her triumphantly as he made his point. "You know that was the first real meal either of those two have eaten since they lost Blue? Not being able to control your powers or having nightmares a lot doesn't make you a burden, Gwen; you're the glue that keeps this team together, and nobody's about to forget that. So how about giving yourself a little more credit?"

Gwen blinked in surprise, hesitating when Kane give her a gentle tap on the arm before she slowly let herself smile a little. She watched as the taller boy walked back to sit across from the Liams, a big grin on his tan face as they merged back into one being and he ruffled the younger one's hair. The phantom girl was about to join them when she heard her communicator beeping and stopped what she was doing abruptly- a little _too_ abruptly it seemed, since her whole left arm became intangible for several minutes and dropped the bowl she'd been holding noisily, eliciting an aggravated noise from the girl as she answered her ring as soon as that arm was solid again.

"Gwen, wake up X and get down to the control room." Her sister's voice ordered as soon as Gwen had answered, throwing Legion communications protocol out the window as usual. Winema always got snippy when she was stressed, so her tone of voice made Gwen concerned more than anything else. She motioned for the boys to follow her, trying to keep calm as she flew off towards the control room and answered her sister in a level tone of voice.

"X and Liam are a-already with me, Winny, I'm on my way. Pl-please tell me we're not u-under attack again.." The girl said as she turned a corner sharply and glanced back at her teammates. Kane's shades were masking his eyes again, and Liam's mouth was in a thin, hard line as he flew beside Gwen with his hands in fists.

"Honestly? I wish." Winema answered vaguely, plunging on before Gwen could ask what she meant, "We got a intergalactic transmission over the com systems, it barely made it here as it is and Computo's sifting out the interference as we speak.."

The older girl could practically feel her sister's hesitation on the other end, so before she could hesitate any more, Gwen asked the question she knew was on everyone's minds.

"W-Winny.. wh-where's the transmission from? Who s-sent it?"

There was a long pause on Winema's end of the line save a few assorted beeping sounds that must have been coming from Computo before finally the other girl let out a heavy sigh and replied.

"The transmission was sent with fairly shoddy equipment, I mean there's not even a time stamp on it.. So I guess we'll find out who exactly sent it when we hear it. Gwen, I.. I don't want you getting your hopes up, but I recognize this coding... This message was sent from Braal."


End file.
